Awakened Emotion
by Kommando
Summary: Gary wakes up after Jigglypuff's song, but he's not alone. Palletshipping aka Ash/Gary. Rated T just for sure.


**Awakened emotion**

Something made stingingly shrill voices that were determinedly attempting to wake Gary Oak up. The thing also punched him. Twice. Trice.

Gary mumbled something annoyed and tried to push the irritating feeling away. He didn't want to get up, not yet… It was so warm and nice.

Except that warmness was weirdly heavy on him.

Gary blinked his eyes open slowly. He saw the roof straight above. The pattern seemed strange. After a while he recognized where he was; this was professor Oak's living room. In fact this was the big sofa in professor Oak's living room.

"What the…" Gary mumbled, rubbing his eyes and yawning deeply. He didn't remember falling asleep in there. When he opened his eyes fully and turned his head down, he finally saw Eevee sitting on the floor and nudging him.

And he saw Ash.

"_What_ the…" Gary screeched and got his upper body up to rest on his other arm. He stared at the black haired boy lying partly on top of Gary's body. He was evidently asleep; eyes closed, mouth half open, body nestling.

So that was what had made him feel so warm. A living blanket.

"Ash, get up from there", Gary growled. He was infuriatingly confused. Why was Ash sleeping on the couch with him – and what on Earth did Gary himself do in there, anyway? It was afternoon, not morning. This was an embarrassing situation he wanted to get out of.

"Ash", Gary got angrier. "If you don't get up on this very next second –"

Still no responding. The boy just closed his eyes tighter and suddenly cuddled up to him, grabbing his shirt and squeezing it tightly. Gary raised his eyebrows. Ash was _cuddling_ him?

This was it. Gary pushed Ash off from him and got up from the sofa unbelievably quickly. That was when Ash woke up too, murmuring something and getting up from the uncomfortable position he had been thrown to.

"What were you doing?" Gary asked aggressively.

"Huh?" Ash blinked sleepily.

"What was the point, sleeping on me?" barked Gary.

"What's –? Why am I here – hey." Ash realized something. "But… I was outside when Jigglypuff sung! What am I doing here?"

Gary stared at him. Now when Ash mentioned it, Gary did remember walking on his Grandpa's fields before hearing the Jigglypuff's song. But Ash hadn't been even near him.

"Someone must have taken us here", Ash said.

Gary didn't want to admit he was thinking about the same, so he just said: "But that doesn't explain why you were lying on me."

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"When I woke up, you were half on me."

Ash blinked. "No I wasn't."

"Yes you were."

Ash blinked again and then – blushed. "Oh."

Gary mocked. "What did you dream of – teddy bears? You can cuddle them as much as you wan't but I'm not one."

"I was asleep", Ash defended himself. "I didn't plan to sleep with you…" Then, after a moment, Ash realized what he had said. "I mean, sleep on you, or, I mean –"

Gary stared down at Ash. During just those few seconds his mind built a picture of the second meaning of Ash's mistakenly chosen words.

"Okay, now I don't think you were dreaming about teddy bears", he said stingingly.

Ash blushed even more deeply, but still said: "I don't have to tell you anything. What's the big deal anyway? I said I was asleep and I didn't mean to sleep even near you."

Instead of answering Gary just sat back down onto the couch. Ash took a better posture and prepared to hear some more vicious comments, but surprisingly Gary didn't say anything.

After a moment of silence, Ash finally asked: "Gary, are you okay?"

"Of course I am", snarled the other boy. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

Gary sneered. "Why do you have to be so curious?"

"Why do you have to be so refusing?" Ash hit back.

"I'm not refusing. I just don't want you to know everything I think about."  
"I didn't mean that", Ash almost shouted. "C'mon, Gary, aren't we ever going to get over this ridiculous arguing period?"

Gary fell in silence, staring at Ash. The black-haired boy was also a bit surprised of what he had just said. It didn't feel like he hadn't meant it, not at all. It just… kind of came out of the blue that he had actually said the thought out loud. The thought he had hid ever since they both had started their journeys.

"Why do we always argue, anyway?" Ash added.

Gary was almost going to reply with yet another mean word, but then he thought about it again. Maybe… maybe it wasn't so necessary.

So Gary just kept quiet and sat there next to Ash, not looking at his eyes.

Eevee made a concerned sound, poking Gary's legs and looking at him worriedly. Gary leaned to stroke its fur and whispered softly: "It's okay, Eevee. There's nothing to worry about."

Eevee cheerfully peeped its name, turned its back and jogged out through the half open door, leaving the two boys alone.

Ash watched as the other boy straightened up and leaned his back against the sofa's back rest.

"I was thinking about how did I – or well, we – get here instead of just falling asleep somewhere there on the yard", Gary tried to speak calmly. "Maybe some of the pokémon found me and got someone to carry me there." Gary furrowed. "Pikachu was with you, wasn't he? Where is he now?"

"Umm…" Ash mumbled. "Well, he actually wasn't. He was… somewhere… playing, I guess."

Gary looked at Ash, raising his eyebrows. "You guess? So you aren't sure of where your Pokémon are most of the time?"

"I didn't say that", Ash got outraged again. "Pikachu isn't here so he probably got someone to carry us here. He's somewhere awake –getting to know Eevee perhaps. If Eevee isn't as arrogant and selfish as you are."

Gary gasped.

"Or at least you try to be arrogant", Ash continued. "And I just don't get the point of it."

"I'm not _trying_ to be anything", said Gary. "And besides, now when I think about it, I'm pretty sure I saw your Pikachu sneaking around me just before I fell asleep. Am I right?"

Ash swallowed his counter-arguments. "W-what?"

"You heard me. What was Pikachu doing? Spying my training methods for you? Too bad I wasn't training."

"I haven't told him to spy you", said Ash aggressively. "I was taking a walk around the fields with my pokémon, when Pikachu suddenly ran away. I trust him so I wasn't worried."

Gary gazed at him suspecting.

"How about your Eevee? Why is it awake?" Ash changed the subject.

"Well…" Gary started to speak slowly. "Actually… he run off me just like Pikachu run away from you."

"That's weird."

"Yeah."

Ash fell into his thoughts. Why had Gary become so angry after waking up? Maybe Gary just didn't like being touched – but it was an accident anyway. And the boy had looked so _confused_… Or was it just Ash's imagination? Why would Gary be confused for the same reason that Ash was? It definitely was just his wild-gone imagination after that dream he had had.

Dream about Gary.

Ash felt his cheeks turn hot again and tried to push the dream out of his mind. Gary was there, sitting next to him, and he didn't want him to notice anything weird.

And as if Gary read his mind, he asked: "Are you okay? You look weird."

_Perfect_, thought Ash.

"No, I mean yes, everything's fine", he muttered. "I'm just… still sleepy."

"You didn't want to wake up from some nice dream, did you?" Gary grinned.

_Is this possible?_

"Why wouldn't I want to wake up from a dream that included you in it?"

Gary's grin went even wider. _Damnit_, Ash swore in his mind. That line was supposed to be irritating, not so… _revealing_.

"You dreamt about me?" Gary asked. He looked very amused, like listening to a kid telling fairy tales.

Ash didn't have a chance to deny it anymore, so he nodded. "Well, you were… a part of it."

"So I was kind of the main character."

Ash grumbled. "Says who?"

"Your body language."

Ash didn't answer.

"So, you keep losing to me even in your dreams?" Gary kept grinning.

Ash sighed. "Actually we had quite good relationship."

"Oh? Really?"

"Yes, isn't it hard to believe?" Ash smiled sarcastically. "We were at the highest spot of Pallet town. The place we used to play in when we were kids, remember?"

Gary nodded.

"First I was there alone and watched at the town", Ash told. "Then you came along and… and…"

"And?" Gary raised his eyebrows.

Ash thought about it for a moment before continuing. "You sat there next to me, so we were just like we are now… and you started to speak something odd about how you'd want to start this all again from the beginning."

Gary's amused expression slowly faded away. He stared at Ash, waiting for him to continue, but the black-haired boy didn't. So Gary decided to resume the conversation himself.

"So we sat there next to each other… That's all?" he dropped a question.

Ash didn't look at him. "Hmm."

"Are you sure?" Gary asked quietly.

They both looked at each other's eyes for a while, deep green ones to chocolate brown. During one or two seconds, those fastest ones, Ash thought he had just seen something... something hidden.

"No", Ash replied.

"Well what happened then?" Gary didn't break the eye contact between them.

Neither did Ash. "You touched me."

After those words Gary brought his hand near Ash's arm, stroking it lightly. "I touched you?"

"Like this", Ash said, lifting his hand up to touch Gary's cheek softly. "And…"

"And?" Gary whispered, recognizing his breathe had sped up a little, but he didn't care. He wanted to hear more. He wanted to hear it.

"And then you woke me up", Ash ended the sentence.

Gary blinked.

"I woke you up", he repeated.

"Yeah", said Ash. "If you can't remember, you threw me almost off the couch when you had woken up."

Gary couldn't have imagined himself doing so, but he blushed. For once he really regretted something he had done; now it was ending up that dream of Ash's. This situation was… new, totally, and Gary also knew it wouldn't happen again very soon. Ash was opening up to him, and even Gary himself had managed to lower his guard. Maybe he was able to bring his thoughts up at last. This seemed to be the only chance.

"What if…" Gary whispered, "what if you just continued that dream?"

Ash had dropped his hand down from Gary's cheek, but he still had that intense in his dark eyes. "What about it?"

Gary took a better position so he was sitting closely next to Ash. He put his hand on Ash's cheek like the boy had done for him, but he didn't just let it lie in there; his thumb began to stroke the soft skin. "This was the situation, wasn't it?"

"Well –" Ash's voice cut off when he stared at Gary's waiting sparkly eyes.

"You were alone, I came along, we watched the town together. I stroked you, and?"

"Actually", Ash breathed, "I never said you'd stroke me. You started that by yourself."

Gary's face seemingly showed that he was going to pull his hand away, because Ash quickly replied: "But that doesn't mean you should stop doing it."

Gary smiled.

"So, what would have happened then?"

"I – I don't…" Ash coughed. "Probably…"

"Say it", Gary found himself whispering.

Ash looked at him, swallowed and said: "Probably you would have kissed me."

Gary had some kind of an evil grin on his face. "I would have kissed you."

"What's with you, repeating everything I say?" Ash tried to tease, but his nervousness showed through. And Gary didn't seem to listen anyway. His eyes glowed the way Ash had never seen before.

And then Gary was there, against him. Ash's world had filled with Gary's scent before he realized that the brunette was kissing him – actually kissing him. Gary's fingers were seeking through his hair and lips moving against his own, and that was when Ash finally decided to give everything he had to that boy.

So he kissed him back hard.

Ash really began to think that anything Gary ever did, he did it incredibly well. Ash quickly forgot who and where he was while Gary's tongue slipped into his mouth. It felt like it tasted every bit of Ash, sending up waves of strange electricity through the boy's body. Then in the next second Gary had taken Ash's tongue between his teeth and sucked its tip. Ash couldn't block a silent groan escaping from his throat.

After a moment of sensation Gary broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against Ash's.

"Gary, are you okay?" Ash asked quietly, breathing heavily.

"Is this the time to wake up?" Gary replied with another question, still refusing to open his eyes.

"If… If you want to", said Ash.

"I don't."

They both just sat in there against each other, Gary's fingers still in Ash's hair, Ash holding Gary's hips.

Suddenly Gary whispered something Ash couldn't catch.

"What did you say?" Ash raised his head and saw Gary opening his eyes. Now they were full of declined emotion.

"I love you", sighed Gary.

Ash smiled. "I love you too."

"For all my life I have loved."

Ash couldn't help water gathering into his eyes. He tried to push them away – for Moltres's sake, he wouldn't cry a single tear in front of Gary! – but the passion in Gary's eyes was too much for him. His voice shook when he said: "You've got a funny way to show it…"

"Shut up, loser", Gary snickered. "This morning – or afternoon, whatever it is now – I freaked out because of you… And that's why I yelled at you, sorry about that. I thought I was out of my mind when I saw you sleeping there."

"Oh?" Ash blinked. "Why?"

"I have imagined that scene a million times, and then…" Gary turned his head so he didn't have to look at Ash's eyes, "then you actually were there. Here. With me."

Ash didn't know what to say. Okay, he had desired bringing his feelings up and getting them returned, but now when he heard Gary actually saying those things, he couldn't believe them.

"Bless that Jigglypuff", Ash finally said.

Gary smirked and kissed him again.

Behind the door there were Pikachu, Eevee and Jigglypuff listening to the boys' voices.

'_This went pretty well_', peeped Eevee.


End file.
